If you care, I care: Perceived social support and public engagement via SNSs during crises

摘要

Social networking sites (SNSs) have become sources for seeking and sharing crisis information, especially during crisis to promote public engagement. However, SNSs users experience many challenges while participating with the intent to make public engagement during crisis. A quantitative study was conducted with the proposed perceived social support-public engagement (PSS-PE) model incorporating perceived social support, perceived benefits, and perceived risks, as well as intentions of seeking and intentions of sharing behaviors with the support of valid instruments. With the total of 505 respondents in Pakistan, this study concluded that perceived social support is positive significantly associated with perceived benefits but not with perceived risks during crises, while public engagement is predicted by the intentions of individuals for seeking and sharing crisis information on SNSs. The implications highlight the immediate need of the institutional attention toward appreciating public openness and to encourage public engagement during crises.